Amazing Cooking Classes Around the World

Your trip to Rome doesn't have to be all "ruins and queues" (to quote one TripAdvisor traveler). Take a break from pounding the cobblestones and learn to make fresh pasta, stuffed squash blossoms, pesto, and other Italian dishes. Even if you're not an experienced cook, chef Andrea will have you "chopping vegetables, carving pig jowls and smashing garlic before you know it," reported another reviewer.

The market class here takes you to a cheese shop, butcher, fishmonger and bakery to shop for top-quality ingredients before assembling a full meal. What's more, the menu for that meal isn't set in advance. Together with the chef, participants "looked at the offerings and designed our menu," wrote a TripAdvisor visitor to the City of Light. If you have a sweet tooth, choose the French pastry course instead. You'll learn to make perfect souffles, macaroons, madeleines and creme brulee.

Learn about Kobe beef (as one traveler gushed, "We got to see the certificate with the nose print and lineage of the cow we were about to eat!") or, at the other extreme, "delicious, truly vegetarian food" at Haru Cooking Class in Kyoto. The class, held in the instructor's home, is also "a great chance to talk with a wonderful Japanese family, and Mr. Taro took all sorts of questions from us ... about Japanese education and culture," wrote another TripAdvisor traveler.

The six-hour course at L'Atelier Faim d'Epices is a great value, according to many TripAdvisor travelers. The day begins with a "mini-seminar on the spices used in Moroccan cuisine" (including a fun blind spice identification challenge, a la "Top Chef"). "Our menu covered everything from incredibly tasty salads [to] hands-on bread and tagine-making," wrote one happy TripAdvisor student. Unexpected bonus: "Our children were given a warm welcome"!